In general, a farm that breeds livestock such as cattle and pigs facilitates management of the livestock by attaching an identification tag including information on livestock individual on an ear or the like of the livestock.
In recent years, with development of various wireless communication technologies, the wireless communication technology has been grafted onto the identification tag for managing the livestock individual, which has led to a development of various types of identification tags in order to improve the efficiency in the management of the livestock individual.
Among the technologies for managing the livestock individual onto which the wireless communication technology has been grafted, livestock individual management technology to which an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology is applied is widely employed, because this technology has various advantages over other technologies.
The RFID technology includes an RFID tag and an RFID reader, and recognizes information from a distance, in which the RFID tag records information in an integrated circuit and transmits the information to the reader via an antenna. When the reader receives the information, the received information is used to identify a subject to which the RFID tag is attached.
That is, a difference between the RFID and a barcode system is that the RFID reads the information by using radio wave instead of using light. Therefore, unlike the barcode reader that works in a short distance, the RFID is capable of reading the information from a distance and even receiving the information through an intervening object between the RFID and the subject.
The RFID can be classified depending on a type of power used. An RFID that reads information from a chip performs a communication based on a power of the reader is classified as a passive RFID.
An RFID that includes a built-in battery to read information from a chip based on a power of the battery and performs a communication based on a power of the reader is classified as a semi-passive RFID.
Lastly, an RFID that reads information from a chip and performs a communication based on a power of the tag is classified as an active RFID.
The RFID can also be classified depending on a frequency of the radio wave used in the communication instead of the type of power used. An RFID using a low frequency is referred to as an “LF RFID (Low-Frequency Radio-Frequency Identification), which uses a radio wave of 120 kHz to 140 kHz. An HF RFID (High-Frequency Radio-Frequency Identification) uses a radio wave of 13.56 MHz, and a UHF RFID (Ultrahigh-Frequency) that uses an even higher frequency uses a radio wave of 868 MHz to 956 MHz.
In a livestock individual management system employing the RFID technology, each livestock individual is provided with an RFID tag, i.e., an identification tag including an antenna and a chipset that is an integrated circuit for RFID communication. Normally, the identification tag for the livestock is attached through a hole perforated on an ear of the livestock individual, and hence it is also referred to as an “ear tag”.
Korean Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-2013-0019970 (2013 Feb. 27) describes an ear tag including a first cover unit facing a skin side of livestock individual, a second cover unit bonded with the first cover unit, and a wireless communication chipset between the first cover unit and the second cover unit.
In such a conventional ear tag, a male plug that is coupled with a bonded structure of the first cover unit and the second cover unit is provided through a hole perforated on an ear of the livestock individual, which is a part of a body of the livestock individual, the first cover unit includes a through hole for passing the male plug, the second cover unit includes a female unit having a space for receiving the male plug, and an unplug preventing member that interferes with the male plug inserted through the through hole to prevent the male plug from being unplugged is provided in the space of the female unit.
However, in such a conventional ear tag, the first and second cover units bonded together to include the wireless communication chip therebetween are made of soft material such as polyurethane, and hence the first and second cover units that are straight are easily bent in a U-shape by an external force. When the first and second cover units are bent, the bending stress is concentrated on the wireless communication chip that is arranged roughly at the center of the first and second cover units, and the concentrated stress may damage the wireless communication chip that is a core part of the ear tag, which causes degradation of the product reliability.
In particular, a feedbox for storing feed for the livestock such as cattle and pigs is provided outside a cowshed with bars therebetween in the livestock industry environment, and hence an external impact is transferred to the wireless communication chip due to a bending by an external force when the ear tag attached on the ear of the cattle is bumped into the bars or folded with the ear while the cattle puts its head in and out of a space between the bars to take the feed.
Further, when the livestock sleeps or moves while lying on the floor in the cowshed, the ear having the ear tag is folded to cause a bending of the cover unit, which transfers an impact on the wireless communication chip.
Therefore, the wireless communication chip provided in the cover unit is damaged by the external impact transferred from a bending of the ear tag attached on the ear of the cattle due to such external environmental factors in the livestock industry environment. The repeated bending of the ear tag damages the chip and the bonding surface, which eventually disables the wireless communication function.